Conor Hazard hopes his Celtic mentality can rub off on Partick Thistle teammates

Conor Hazard hopes his Celtic mentality can rub off on Partick Thistle teammates

IT is said that you don’t have to be crazy to be a goalkeeper, but it helps, and new Partick Thistle stopper Conor Hazard admits that he has a little bit of a ‘mental’ side.

But it is the calmness and composure that he has learnt to exhibit at Celtic that the youngster will be looking to bring to Firhill during his loan spell at the Jags.

The towering 20-year-old made his Thistle debut in the draw with Dundee United at Tannadice last weekend, and he is now looking forward to taking on former club Falkirk – where he had a loan spell last season – in the crucial bottom-of-the-table showdown this afternoon.

And he hopes that the winning mentality he has picked up at his parent club under the guidance of the Celtic coaching staff can rub off on some of his new teammates.

“Everyone has that wee mental side to them, and if you’re a goalie you’re going to have that, aren’t you?” Hazard said. “It’s just when to use it and when not to use it.

“I think, though, you have to be very calm and collected. At Celtic you’re trained to be calm and collected in every situation.

“It will be the same for me here and I’ll try to have an influence on the back four. Hopefully everyone’s calm and collected on the ball, can take it in any scenario. I’ll certainly be available every time.

“No matter what situation you’re in you have to be very composed. Obviously at a big club like Celtic you have to be composed on the ball at all costs.

“The club competes in the Champions League, Europa League and has won a Double Treble.

“The atmosphere I can take off everybody is that everyone can take the ball in any situation and they never get fazed. Hopefully here we can do the same.

“My job’s just to keep the ball out of the back of the net. For as long as I’m here I’ll look to get as many clean sheets as possible.

“I’ll also look to bring some of the Celtic atmosphere to the club — be a good, nice lad.”

Hazard has fond memories of his time at Falkirk last season, where his form earned him a call-up and first cap for Northern Ireland against Costa Rica last summer.

His focus now is fully on Thistle and helping them in their battle to avoid back-to-back relegations, but he is hoping that if he can perform well for the Jags, he can catch Michael O’Neill’s eye once again.

And if that means relegating Falkirk along the way, then so be it.

“Every game’s an important game,” he said. “We have six months left and it’s important to make things right. It’s not been the best of seasons for the club so far but we’re hoping to change that.

“Falkirk’s a really good club and I really enjoyed my time there. To end my season there with a first Northern Ireland cap was brilliant. I absolutely loved it at Falkirk and it gave me great belief going back to Celtic in the summer.

“At this stage of the season I don’t think every game will be a must win, although we’ll obviously be trying.

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